


Baby Groot’s Not-So-Magical Christmas

by Panda365



Category: Guardians of the Galaxy (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Christmas, Christmas Fluff, Family, Gen, Glitter, Tinsel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-22
Updated: 2020-12-22
Packaged: 2021-03-10 18:42:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,222
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28241847
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Panda365/pseuds/Panda365
Summary: Baby Groot is stuck with the Barton family for Christmas which will haunt his nightmares forever.*A contribution to the Marvel Holiday Scramble.Character 1: ClintCharacter 2: GrootPrompt: Person A is going all out with the holiday decorations, the glitterier the better. Only one problem. Person B HATES glitter.
Comments: 3
Kudos: 4
Collections: Marvel Holiday Scramble 2020





	Baby Groot’s Not-So-Magical Christmas

“Dad! Cooper hit me!”

“Lila started it!”

“Yeah but I ended it! Aunt Nat said as long as I end it it’s fine!”

“You just punched my face!”

“If Aunt Nat said it, we don’t do it!,” Clint holds his head, boots muddied from the snow and his uniform still on. Laura waves from the couch with a smug grin peering out from underneath the magazine she’s reading as if to say, ‘it’s your turn to deal with them’.

The house is a mess and a lightbulb above the entrance is flickering. 

He snaps, “Coop! Apologize.”

The boy yells, “I didn’t do anything!”

“Lila!”

“What?!”

“Behave or ya both get nothin’ for Christmas in a week. Work it out!”

He heads for the staircase, followed by the two kids who continue to whine, “Work it out. I need to shower and if you’re both not quiet by the time I get out I’m canceling Christmas. Seriously, you’ve both been the devil’s pajamas!” he slams the door for his bedroom. 

...Devil’s pajamas...what does that even mean. He had heard Steve say it yesterday, the old man clearly meant something else.

Clint throws his bow. Right about now the Avenger Tower Vents sound pretty good. He left a beer up there last time...a good one too. Was it the homebrew?

He tips his quiver to dump the arrows onto the floor and does a double take when one of them appears to be moving. He lines up a shot, ready to crush it before he spots two beady eyes;

“I am groot…”

The peculiar mini tree rubs his head with a pout and confusion in his stare. 

Clint crouches to get a better look, “You’re that splinter that hangs out with the bunny.”

“I am groot? I am groot!” 

Clint checks the rest of the arrows to ensure it’s just the one and lifts the quiver, “I don’t speak tree. I chop ‘em. And carve them into weapons.”

“I am groot!” He gasps, completely horrified. 

“Yeah. So unless the bunny drives, you’re stuck here until after Christmas,” he lifts Groot by the hand, the tree dangling in a squirming fuss until he lands on the wooden desk. 

“Stay off the ground if you don’t want to get stepped on.”

The tree lets his legs fall out from under him. He pouts, missing his friends and tries to figure out where he is.   
  


* * *

  
Groot is pacing the house as best he can, doing a little dance over the country music Laura prefers to play over the radio. He’s dancing even if it’s not his usual jam, eyes shifting slowly upward when he realizes he’s been caught. 

Clint makes silent eye contact, quickly looking back at the glitter filled tinsel he’s been asked to put up along the banister. 

Groot tiptoes closer to the strands that have already been laid out. The stray powdery glitter that sprays from off of it flying into the air and making him fall backward with a sneeze. The tree goes sliding next after losing his footing, down the length of the tinsel and landing on a branch of plastic, glitter-filled, holly berries. 

“I am-...,’ he takes an inhale, sneezing through the rest of his ever so important remark that Clint simply must understand if he says it enough times, ‘Grooooottt!”

Barton has found something else to amuse himself with, meeting the mini tree at the bottom of the staircase. He takes a stash of pink glitter into his fingertips and moves to sprinkle it over Groot. Groot pulls away angrily;

“I am Groot!”

“Aww daddy,’ Lila crouches next to them, ‘He likes it!”

“I. Am. Groot!,” he yells in protest, wiping a bit of glitter from above his eyes. 

“We should put him on top of the Christmas tree! He could be our tree, tree topper!”

“I am groot!!!!!”

Clint snickers and hoists Groot up into his hands, “Alright.”

Groot squirms and clenches a micro fist to take a swing. This is, without a doubt, the worst experience of his life. On top of an actual pine tree he finds solace in a pine branch and clings for dear life...looking down was a bad idea!

Clint takes a handful of white glitter, “Gotta add some snow, right?”

Groot yells over being covered, once again, in that dreaded glitter! 

Cooper joins in the fun, offering Groot an ornament to sit on. 

“Aww! He likes it,” Lila smiles, getting along with her brother for the first time all month. 

Groot has his arm branches crossed tightly inside the driver’s seat of the plastic car. He’s glaring directly at Clint who is laughing as he reaches...for more glitter. 

Clint takes Groot back, and the tree climbs up his shoulder with a determination to reason through his issues with the glitter. Barton moves to swat him, “What are you doing now?”

“I am groot.”

“Uh huh…”

“I am groot, I am groot. I AM, Groot.”

“...huh.”

“I am groot,” he folds his hands and smiles, satisfied with his explanation. He feels as though he has been both reasonable and understanding. Groot has no intention of ruining the kid’s fun, only wishing to be treated as an equal and not thrown around into the blinding, horrific, sparkly substances. 

Clint thinks up an idea, taking Laura’s makeshift snow globe down and replaces the snowman with Groot.

The mini tree concedes...there’s no point in stating his wishes as his flipped upside down in a pile of white fake snow...and glitter. 

* * *

  
Groot is stuck at the Bartons Christmas Eve, tired and still brushing off the dreaded substance from off his branches. He’s etched days of captivity into the desk in the living room, disgusted by the girly mini sweaters stitched just for him by Lila. If he sneezes one more time, it might be in that pile of cookies left out on the table that he’s sitting next to. 

Just when he thinks he can’t take it anymore, the bane of his very existence offers a tiny wrapped present. Clint smiles when Groot takes it with caution and nothing but distrust. 

“I am Groot!”

“Well open it,’ he laughs, ‘It’s not glitter.”

Groot narrows his focus, squinting with a cringe as he pulls the box open. His eyes light up over the mini bow and arrow, tears in his eyes over something made just for him. Groot points to himself;

“I am groot?”

“Yeah. It’s for you.”

“I am groot,” he sniffles emotionally, touched that someone would think to give him such a fun and thoughtful gift. He lifts the bow to give it a whirl.

Clint can’t help but correct his stance, “Okay, you’re doing it wrong. And don’t aim at my kids.”

Groot obeys and pivots, taking his aim and fires his first arrow. It backfires, puffing a solid micro glitter bomb in his face. 

Groot throws it down and pouts. Clint laughs and reaches into his pocket, “I had to. These are normal mini arrows. I swear.”

Groot takes them, analyzing each one before finally accepting his present. 

It’s not his ideal Christmas but it’s one he won’t forget. And the next morning when Rocket and Gamora show up to pick him up, he has a story. And some choice words for leaving him with Clint for so long.


End file.
